THE GOVERNMENT has proposed to Ryanair that it could establish a new aircraft maintenance base at either Shannon airport or Knock rather than in the controversial Hangar 6 in Dublin.
Separately, in a letter sent last night, Tánaiste Mary Coughlan told Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary that it was “absolutely clear” there was no legal mechanism by which the Government or the Dublin Aviation Authority could secure the Hangar 6 facility for its proposed new aircraft maintenance facility, without the agreement of Aer Lingus.
She said it was futile and particularly unfair to the many skilled workers who would hope for employment in any maintenance facility “to engage in continued debate about Hangar 6, rather than focus constructively on the other possible options which include the use of available existing hangar space or a new build on available sites on airport land, or some combination of the two”.
Ms Coughlan told reporters yesterday that Shannon airport had also been suggested to Mr O’Leary as an alternative location, while Government sources suggested Knock had also been put forward in official contacts. Ryanair has rejected both locations.
Aer Lingus currently has a 20-year lease on Hangar 6 and has informed the Government it is not prepared to move out.
Ryanair has said that unless it gets access to Hangar 6, it will locate its new maintenance base and the 300 jobs associated at an airport abroad.
In a letter to The Irish Times last night, Aer Lingus chairman Colm Barrington said “Michael O’Leary’s use of the lives and job prospects of 300 aircraft engineers at Dublin airport as pawns in another of his petulant and high-profile attacks on the Dublin Airport Authority and the Government is a gross insult to the people involved. Further, his attempt to force the Government to tortuously interfere with Aer Lingus’s lease of Hangar 6 is outrageous.”
Mr Barrington wrote: “Hangar 6 is the only hangar at Dublin airport capable of accommodating more than one of the large wide-body Airbus A330 aircraft that Aer Lingus uses for its transatlantic services.”
In separate correspondence with Ryanair yesterday, Shannon Development said it could offer the airline “grant support packages” and had a number of substantial greenfield landbanks with airside access available if it would consider basing its maintenance facility at Shannon airport.
However, Ryanair rejected this proposal out of hand.
It stated: “Ryanair’s proposal for the creation of 300 engineering jobs in Ireland has just one condition – that Ryanair secures Hangar 6 at Dublin airport. Hangar 6 fits Ryanair’s requirements, is not currently being utilised for the purpose for which it was built, and is in close proximity to a pool of highly skilled aviation engineers who formally worked for SRT. Ryanair will not be considering any other proposals.”
Meanwhile, Ryanair also yesterday released correspondence between Mr O’Leary and the IDA from last July, in which it offered to provide guarantees that it would not use Hangar 6 for any purpose other than aircraft maintenance and office accommodation if it secured access to the facility.
This was in response to claims that the real intention of Ryanair would be to develop a new terminal building on the site of Hangar 6.